Retirement planning tends to focus on money and lifestyle, but there is a legal side too. It’s one that’s much easier to sort while life is calm rather than in the middle of a health scare or a family crisis. Here are five things we suggest ticking off.
1. Review your will
If your will is more than a few years old, it may not reflect your life now. Grandchildren arrive, property gets sold, executors move overseas. Retirement is also when many people restructure their assets, and a will written for your old circumstances can produce odd results. Read it, and if anything makes you pause, update it. If you do not have one, the law decides who gets what, and that formula might not actually be what you want.
2. Put an enduring power of attorney (EPA) in place
EPAs let someone you trust make decisions if you cannot. There are two kinds: one for property, and one for personal care and welfare. The common mistake is waiting. EPAs can only be set up while you have capacity, and if you lose it first, your family faces a slower and more expensive court process to be appointed instead. If you do one thing on this list, make it this.
3. Look at how your property is owned
Whether your home is owned jointly, as tenants in common, or through a trust, changes what happens when one of you dies. Many couples do not know which applies to them. This matters, especially in blended families where each partner wants to provide for their own children.
4. Ask whether your trust still earns its keep
Plenty of family trusts were set up decades ago for reasons that no longer apply. Trusts come with ongoing obligations and costs, and the law around them has tightened. Some are still doing a valuable job. Others are just admin. A review will tell you which yours is, and winding up a trust that has outlived its purpose can simplify life considerably.
5. Talk to your family
Not a legal document, but the step that prevents most disputes. If your family knows what you have decided and why, there are fewer surprises later. You do not need to share every detail. Even a broad conversation about who your executors are and where the documents live can save real stress.
When to do it
Now, ideally. None of this takes long, and most of it stays done for years once sorted. If a retirement village move is on the horizon, do the review first, since selling the family home changes the picture.
We help East Auckland families with this, every week. If your paperwork needs a tidy-up, give us a call at Dawsons Lawyers.
Claire Endean – Director/Lawyer
dawsonslawyers.co.nz | 09 272 0002
Kohimarama | East Tamaki
